A plot is an arrangement
A plot is an arrangement,and not a mere transcript of the natural order of events as you may find them in daily life. It is conceivable that a series of events in your experience might occur in such an order that without any readjustment they would form a perfect short-story plot; but such a thing is most unlikely—some planning, some shifting in the order of happenings, some additions, some eliminations, some toning down and some exaggerations, are pretty sure to be necessary in order to produce a good plot. Remember that a tale is not a plotted short-story. Hence a plot is artificial—it is a work of art, an artifice, and not a growth of nature. But be neither alarmed nor deceived by this word artificial, for we use it in a carefully restricted sense, in its true original meaning—made byart. Now art is effective in direct proportion as it produces an effect of reality; and so it must be with a fictive plot the best plot is the one in which the events of real life are so arranged by the plotter as to produce a more effective impression than if they were not shifted artfully into a new combination but related just as they actually occurred. This is what we mean by saying that a story is typical,instead of being a mere transcript of actualities. Just as a painter has two courses set before him, so does the storyteller. The painter may compose a landscape or an action-scene by selecting parts of several scenes, imagining some others, then arranging the whole so as to produce a certain preconceived effect. The writer does precisely this in plotting a short-story. Or the pictorial artist may transfer a scene to his canvas, faithfully following his original. The writer may do likewise and thus produce a realistic tale. Each of these courses has its merits, but they are distinct and must not be confused—let us repeat, a plot is a composition and not a perfect transcription from nature. It may be, and—except in the case of fantasy and romance and highly-wrought adventure—should be, truth-seeming to the last degree, indeed it should be typical of life and not a warped picture of the author's imperfect fancies; nevertheless,aplot departs from real happenings while yet remaining true to the spirit of reality. The truth of all this will become more apparent when you consider some striking event in the life of an acquaintance. Interesting as it may be, in telling it as a short- story, which is so much more condensed and limited than the novel, would you not have at least to cut out a great many preliminaries and after-effects, or alter some of the circumstances so as to heighten the dramatic effect, or contrive a stronger motive for the deed so as to preserve the reader's sympathy for the chief character—in a word, to take the same liberties with the actual facts that an anecdotist does with his story germ? "But," you say, "truth is stranger than fiction." Yes, but not when considered as a completed plot—only when regarded as plot material.The events of real life are unsurpassed for interest, but some—though not always a great deal of—change is almost sure to be required to build them into a short-story plot. It is often said that all the events of a certain life are worth recording. How thoughtless! It would become most tiresome to record all of the happenings of a single day, be that day as dramatically exciting as it might be. The most extreme realist draws a discreet veil over the dull routine of shoe- shining, and hair-brushing, and hand-cleansing, and banal street-car conversation. He chooses and arranges so as to seemto be telling all in a natural order, yet all the while artfully subdues the unimportant so as to lead up to the points of major interest.